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Chapter 10: The State of the Union

March 18: Franco decided to begin his first day in governing a united Spain by meeting with his ministers and deciding where to steer his country. He decided to maintain his cabinet intact, despite the fact that some parties were over represented. This was the group that won him the war, and they would take the country to a new, prosperous era.

He decided to begin with internal matters. He invited the Armament Minister, Juan March Ordinas into his office to discuss economic plans and production. What he saw was a scary picture. The country was short more than 22 tonnes of coal every day, over 28 tonnes of metal, and about 16 and a half tonnes of rare materials. But acquiring more would be a job for the foreign minister.

March Ordinas noted that the country, after the new economic laws were put into place, had a rather limited industrial capacity of about 57. “57 of what?” asked Franco.

“57 . . . just 57. It’s a number that our economists have abstracted. Let’s just say that it’s not great. We’re not a big country, you know,” replied March Ordinas.

“What can we do to improve our situation?” asked the new leader of the country.

“Ah, excellent question sir. As you can see, we require over 19 units just to produce enough consumer goods to keep the people happy. We also need over 11 units to supply our units with ammunition, clothing, etc. Right now, we need about 2 and a half to arm reinforcements.”

“But that doesn’t leave much left. How can we reduce our numbers to leave more for production and upgrading our equipment?” Franco asked.

“Well, as for the consumer goods demand, there is one thing that we can do. I recommend that we gear our economy towards consumer goods. This will reduce demand. It will take longer to build other things, but right now, CG demand is right at 1/3 of our economy. We can’t sustain that kind of thing for long. As far as supply goes, sources in the army tell me that we might be able to reduce wasted supplies with a reorganization,” replied March Ordinas. “There are also technologies that we can research that can help as well. There are technologies to make our overall production more efficient, some that can boost our output, and others that can help us make more supplies.

Franco nodded and sent his Armament Minister away. He would summon him again after he had more information as to the state of the army.

Next, he invited his Foreign Minister, Jose Yanguas Messia. However, he did not ask Yanguas Messia any questions. Instead, he told him that trade was his mission. He needed to do two things (since they were already aligning towards the Fascist Alliance or Axis or whatever it was called that the Germans were hyping). The first was to arrange to trade to supply our factories with the raw materials they needed, as well as build surpluses to make sure that if trading partners were alienated, they would not have to shut down their factories. The second job was to sell supplies and generate a reasonable surplus. Spain would need to buy production licenses from their allies, since the country only had a limited number of great minds to dedicate to research and development of new military and industrial technologies.

His Air Force and Navy chiefs entered and basically told him the same thing that they did upon the outbreak of the war. They had 6 combat vessels (ranging from a single heavy cruiser down to destroyers groups) and 4 transport squadrons. The air force had 2 squadrons of interceptors, and an additional 2 of tactical (medium) bombers.

Next, the great victor of the battle of Madrid, General Jose Enrique Varela Iglesias entered, and Franco greeted his old friend with a huge hug.

“Jose, tell me what state our army is in,” said Franco.

“Francisco, my old friend, when replenished and reorganized, it will be not bad at all. We have 45 infantry brigades, 4 cavalry brigades, 1 Militia brigade and 1 Light armoured brigade. Depending on what you would like our army to do, we can reorganize accordingly. I would recommend adding artillery support, since we only have a relatively small amount of manpower (under 90 units) after replenishing. My recommendation, to make a powerful army is to add artillery to create divisions of 2 infantry brigades and 1 or 2 artillery support brigades. This would give us over 20 divisions with which to fight. I suggest disbanding our armoured division. We have no fuel left, as you can see, and we will need it for the navy and air force. Our problem is that we need to modernize. Our technology is no better now than it was at the end of the last war, and even then, much of our infantry does not even have those 1918 model weapons."

“Thank you, Jose.” I will take all of this into account. You will hear from me shortly with my instructions,” Franco replied.

Franco sat in his office, the hush contrasting with the barks of gunfire that echoed for the past month. He began to think about the shape his country would soon take...

Sad to say, I've got to put this AAR on hold (I know... just when it was getting interesting, at least for me). Apparently, I've encountered some kind of bug that renders the game completely unplayable. Perhaps some of you have encountered it, or know how to fix it?

When I got the "Spanish Civil War Victory!" event card, immediately I lost all my stockpiles of supplies, cash and fuel. Once this happened, no matter how many supplies I was producing, I would lose supplies, and then my supply trades would be put on hold with the game telling me that I didn't have enough supplies to sell to whomever I was selling to.... following this, I would lose the money from those trades, and finally, would not be able to afford the raw materials, and thus my IC would drop to nothing and my entire economy would spiral out into the ground.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I think it's a problem in the event writing, but I'm not comfortable modding the event.

From what I can gather from looking at the event script, it only affects Nationalist Spain. Because a "new country" is formed with the Spanish Civil War event (Republican Spain already exists), the new country (Nat. Spain) is "given" resources, supplies, money, etc. My assumption is that when the "Spanish Civil War - Victory" triggers (which is part of the Spanish Civil War event), those boosts to Nat. Spain are removed, leaving you with next to nothing. The economic collapse is then the result of this strange coincidence that occurs when the Spanish Civil War event chain completes with the Victory.

The only thing that I can think to try (which I will) is to cancel all trades, and try to rebuild from scratch.

Chapter 11: The Next Step

Franco reconvened his cabinet later that same day. He looked at each of the men in the room and met his eyes with his own, trying to decide whether the men had the courage to see his vision through.

“Gentlemen, you all know of the vision I have of a grand Spanish Empire that we will have within a decade from now. I’m sure some of you have seen a glimpse of this vision yourselves. But the reason I’m in this position is because I know exactly how we will achieve it. The only way that this will be is if each one of you can flawlessly put my plans into effect. It is like a puzzle, only with each piece in place, can we complete it.

“We must modernize and increase our industrial, military and intellectual power. Our military must be geared toward both offense and defence, as the War that shall decide who will rule will be difficult and will involve all the world’s major powers. I will enact certain laws, such as “Consumer Product Orientation.” We will dedicate our finest minds to researching ways to increase industrial output, train more leaders, improve our agricultural technology, which will allow us to have more fighting men under arms. Our army will use the most modern weaponry which will allow the world to see our innate superiority of fighting spirit.

“But first, let me tell you about a conversation that I had with a bright British prisoner who was fighting for the Republicans. His name was Eric Arthur Blair, and he impressed upon me a notion that if a country always had an enemy to fight, and could exist in a state of constant war, then we would be benefit from a populace who would be willing to give their all and make supreme sacrifices that would mobilize our economy to its ultimate power.

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell

“This Blair had a keen mind. Therefore, by keeping Spain in a constant state of war, we could not only conquer more territory to expand our empire, but keep our factories running at a higher capacity, our military recruitment at higher levels and make sure that our populace would be willing to give up creature comforts for the greater good.”

Jose Yanguas Messia, the foreign minister, stood. “An excellent idea, but there are two questions. First, the majority of our people still want us to be neutral, they are tired after a civil war. How could we get them to allow another war, and an extended war, so quickly? Second, who would we go to war with?”

Franco smiled. “Jose, your questions are to the point.” He turned to his Minister of Intelligence, Luis Orgaz Yoldi. “Luis. We will be allocating you the bulk of our leadership toward recruiting spies. You will send them to France and make it look like our neighbour is making threatening advances upon us. This will lower our people’s fear of going to war again in the face of the French threat.”

“As for who we shall wage war against, the answer is simple. Our weak neighbour in Iberia, Portugal, will be our target. Even when we take their Iberian territory, they still have enough colonies on their islands, in Africa, and the far east to keep from capitulating until we decide to finish them off. Thus, we can continue to reap the economic benefits from continuous war, without being seriously threatened in any way.

“As far as our production and technology strategies go, we will first upgrade our industrial base. Then we will upgrade our military. For the next three months, very little will “happen,” but we will be paving the way for a new and glorious era for Spain!”

The men applauded their leader and rushed out the door, inspired to begin work on creating the new Spain.

Chapter 12: A Shortlived Time of Peace

The first task for Franco’s new Spain was to import enough raw materials to use in the factories. While Yanguas Messia was working his diplomatic magic, it was time to reorganize the army to minimize the use of supplies, and relieve confusion. While Franco chose to demobilize the army, enact the Consumer Product Orientation policies, he would still need to reorganize.

The army was reorganized, for the time being, into 1 army group with 2 armies (although these armies would be reorganized again later). The first contained 4 infantry corps with 4 or 5 divisions. It also contained a corps with our cavalry units. Each infantry division would consist of two brigades, and would have an artillery brigade added when its construction was completed. The second army had one corps of 3 infantry divisions. Our air and naval power was incorporated into Vidal’s 1st Army Group chain of command.

On April 2, final victory was declared, loans were paid back to Italy and Germany, while the capital was moved back to Madrid from Burgos.

While he didn’t particularly want to deal with the communists, difficulties in dealing with Germany and the West were forcing his hand. Through deals with the Soviets primarily, Yanguas Messia was able to balance the ledger and feed the factories by April 18th. Now to sell supplies to increase the amount of cash resources that would be used to buy production licenses from our allies in the future.

On May 11, after 10 spies were recruited, the intelligence services unleashed them into France to increase their threat.

The leadership of the country was rearranged to be able to fully fund 4 research projects – Construction engineering, Agriculture, Education and Industrial Production. These would be followed by Industrial Efficiency and Supply production. Some of the excess spy recruitment effort would be put into recruiting officers for our army.

Additionally 30 more convoys were ordered to be produced, given the potentially dire situation. This affected the ability to make overseas trade agreements. However, the one thing that was being starved to fun the production of the convoys, some artillery and supplies were upgrades to our infantry. This would certainly be finished by the time the army was needed again.

By the 2nd of July, the French counterintelligence services had whittled our spies down to 4, so more effort was made to replace them.

On August 9th, the first of the Artillery brigades were available to be attacked to infantry divisions. It was at this time that Franco ordered the divisions to be renumbered. They would simply be called by their number (1st Infantry Division, etc.). Thus the first 3 artillery brigades were attached to the 1st to 3rd Infantry Divisions by August 11. 3 more artillery brigades were put into production, and an air base was put in production for the province of Vigo along the Atlantic coast.

On August 12, the first Garrison division was deployed to Vigo. Our diplomatic overtures toward the axis had been successful. However, Franco was not ready quite yet to join the axis.

On a lark, to test out Hitler’s willingness to court Spain, Franco asked to buy a production license to build fighter planes in Spain. Surprisingly, Hitler’s foreign minister agreed, and production of the Messerschmitt fighters began!

On September 5th, Franco discovers that the British were also trying to court Spain to join the allies....

Finally, on the 24th of October, Franco received reports from his cabinet that the people were sufficiently frothing at the French! The populace was ready once again for war! Franco ordered the army to the Portuguese border, the leadership redistributed to support the officer corps, instructed his generals to prepare for war!

Be very careful doing Education: when you have very low Leadership as you do here, it takes many levels of research before you gain back the 1 point of Leadership you lost just getting the tech. By my calculations you have to complete Education level 4 before it pays for itself. You might be better off waiting until you've gained some more Leadership via conquest.

Be very careful doing Education: when you have very low Leadership as you do here, it takes many levels of research before you gain back the 1 point of Leadership you lost just getting the tech. By my calculations you have to complete Education level 4 before it pays for itself. You might be better off waiting until you've gained some more Leadership via conquest.

I know what you're saying, however, I've found that in FtM, you don't get a boost to leadership by conquering. Playing games with Brazil where I conquered quite a bit of territory (and both annexed and occupied), i found absolutely NO increase in leadership with either scenario (annexed land and occupied land). Perhaps it's a bug -- there were some other things playing a minor country that didn't seem to work properly.

I may not research more than one level, but since Franco is hell bent on modernizing and upgrading his backwards little country, he seems to believe that every little bit counts!

Chapter 13: Gearing Up for War

Franco ordered his generals to move their men into position for muster before declaring war on the Portuguese.

Lt. Gen Orgaz Yoldi’s I. Corps would be sent to Castuera to gather up. Because they had the most powerful divisions (already given artillery support), their task would be to take the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

Lt. Gen. Goded Llopis’s III. Corps would head to Bejar to make up the northern part of the line stretching from the border in the north down to the Atlantic Coast.

Lt. Gen. Saliquet Zumeta’s IV. Corps would go to Ourense in the North and be responsible for collapsing southwards towards Porto.

Lt. Gen. Lopez-Pinto Berizo’s Cavalry Corps would head to Truillo in the center and serve both to shore up the lines and penetrate to separate the north from the south.

Finally, Roatta’s V. Corps would head down to Cadiz to be loaded into the transports to take the Portuguese Island possessions in the Atlantic. Eventually, all of the North African/Eastern Atlantic islands would have to be taken to ensure that the Portuguese Fleet (if Franco couldn’t destroy it first) could not be a threat to our shipping.

By November 1, the 5 corps were in place, and the army was mobilized.

On November 10, Franco’s research team had announced a major breakthrough in Construction Engineering which would allow the nation to build new industrial plants to support Franco’s grand visions. Immediately, he ordered 3 new plants to begin construction.

On November 17, Franco ordered the army deployed, and the fleet recalled to Cadiz from La Coruna.

On November 24, with the army in place, the combat fleet was ordered to scout the coastline to try to find the Portuguese fleet. The next day, Admiral Agacino Armas reported seeing a fleet in port, but the numbers were unknown. After sailing up to Porto to find no ships there, the fleet returned to the coast of Lisbon in preparation for the assault.

And at 5am on November 27, 1936, Spain went back to war, this time as a unified country against a common enemy.

Chapter 14: A Controlled War

November 27, 1936:

Franco woke early. He couldn’t sleep. He had received word that his fleet was back in place. It was time. He now trusted his generals and had asked Field Marshal Mola to draft the plan to conquer mainland Portugal. Mola then passed objectives down to his army commanders, with the newly created 3rd Army under the command of Martinez Anido tasked to take Porto, and the 1st Army, under the command of Cavalcanti tasked to taking Lisbon.

1st army and their objective of Lisbon3rd army and their objective of Porto

With more opposition feared in the north, the Cavalry corps was detached from the 1st Army and and attached to the 3rd. Mola himself would oversee the fleet and air elements.

With the plan set (and Franco confident his generals could handle this fight without his personal intervention), he instructed the foreign minister, Jose Yanguas Messia to deliver the declaration of war to the Portuguese Embassy.

Mola ordered the tactical bombers to attack the enemy ships in port, and since our outdated fighters could not reach Lisbon, they were ordered to fly air intercept missions in order to cover our ground troops.

The first shots of battle erupted. The tactical bombers discovered 2 destroyer groups, 2 transport groups and 1 submarine group in the Lisbon port.

The sub was of primary importance due to the damage it could cause Spain’s limited shipping capacity.

Troops along the front reported that the Portuguese had been caught by complete surprise, with the enemy troops unmobilized. Thus, speed was of the essence, to allow the units to be capture before they could achieve their peak fighting strength.

The enemy troops are only at 25% strength.

To power the increased capacity of our war-time industry, a trade was made with the USA to import enough coal, steel and rare materials.

On the 28th, we had taken another province in Estremoz without a shot, yet the battle still raged in Braganca where the defenders, the lynchpin of the line were holding out despite small odds of success.

On the 29th, we took Braganca, but the number of casualties was bothering Franco.

On the 30th of November, the hoped-for agricultural advances had been achieved. On this day, only two battles raged. The Portuguese had decided to contest our claim to Estremoz, and another battle was being fought in Meda.

On December 2, Mola ordered the tactical bombers to undertake a runway cratering in Lisbon to deny the Portuguese air force anywhere to take and land from. Mola already had a division in Porto, and now was the time to close in around the enemy divisions, with 2 divisions in Meda surrounded.

On the 4th, Mola’s units achieved victory against the troops in Meda, causing 6875 soldiers to surrender.

By the 5th, the battle for Lisbon had begun. Although the outcome looks bleak at the beginning, only two divisions had entered the battle.

On December 10th, Franco decided to exploit the Portuguese industrial resources more by instituting a military government over the occupied territory. Franco was also informed that the first attempt to take Lisbon had been rebuffed by the enemy.

On December 12th, the Second Battle of Lisbon was victorious.

On the 13th, Mola gave orders to surround the Portuguese divisions and encourage their surrender. If they would be willing, they would help to contribute to Franco’s new united Iberia!

Dec. 15: Now that the Portuguese Fleet had been flushed out of harbour it was time to begin the next stage of the plan. Troops would be ferried from Cadiz to capture The Azores, Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, and Bissau, effectively taking the Portuguese Naval bases within striking distances of the Spanish convoys out of play.

On December 21, Franco was informed of the loss of the battle of the Azores. He would try again after eliminating the last pockets of resistance on the mainland.

Before year’s end, on December 30, the final 19634 Portuguese troops surrendered. The first army was then ordered to the outskirts of Madrid, and the third army ordered to Lisbon to prepare for the island hopping.

Thus the year ended, with the bulk of the ground troops' work done, and Franco rested knowing that even the small Portuguese Navy would be little threat soone enough.

Chapter 15: January - May 1937 - Mopping Up

On January 12, two more artillery brigades were attached to the 4th and 5th Infantry Division, and the researchers were ordered to put once again put effort in the Operational Level Organization technology. The Officer corps was still far too low, and thus it received more attention than it might have otherwise.

On January 13, another push to the Azores was made, this time, using the entire III. Corps. While the battle took several days, this time, it was successful. The 11th Infantry Division was left as a garrison (until a dedicated garrison division could be trained), and the rest of the corps pushed south to Madeira.

On the 23rd, a 6th artillery brigade was completed and attached.

On the 24th, Madeira was taken, and the Portuguese fleet was caught and attacked, with a transport flotilla being sunk.

On the 25th, the research minds announced a breakthrough in the education of our young men and women! Like in the Azores, the 12th Infantry division was left behind, and the rest pushed on to Cape Verde Islands.

The assault on Cape Verde began at midnight on the 1st of February, without much resistance.

The fleet was sent to the Bissagos islands off the coast of Bissau, where it headed off the remnants of Portugal’s fleet. The ensuing battle resulted in the sinking of another transport group, which pretty much marked an end to the Portuguese’s ability to reclaim any territory.

Once again, the 13th infantry division was left behind at Cape Verde, and the last 2 divisions (14th and 15th) were sent to Bissau to make the final landing. Again, Bissau fell without much resistance. The 14th Infantry division was left there and the 15th was then taken back to Spain for the welcome of heroes.

With Portugal suppressed, but having not completely capitulated, Franco could still foment the taste for war against the Portuguese villains, yet be able to sleep soundly knowing that his men would not be in harm’s way. He would reap the economic benefits of war, without any more destruction. At least for now.

Thus the war became a “paper war,” with the enemy in no position to be a threat, yet the country still mobilized against the hated Portuguese. This ushered in a much quieter era of relative peace for the country.

On the 26th of February, Franco received word of another Portuguese destroyer group sunk! This action against the remaining naval forces would further cripple the enemy!

On March 9, the country’s industrial production made an advance.

On April 28th, Spain received a boost to the industry!

On May 2, the first two Garrison divisions were completed and deployed via transport ship to the Azores and to Madeira, allowing the 11th and 12th Infantry Divisions to return home. The last two main fighting divisions would be returned in August.